Highland Council’s home care at centre of row

The opposition SNP group complained yesterday that Highland Council’s home care and personal care services were being “privatised” by the multi-party coalition running the authority.

Its social work spokeswoman, Nairn Provost Liz MacDonald, raised the issue during questions at a full council meeting in Inverness to the convener, Sandy Park.

In a written answer about the authority’s home care modernisation programme, he told her the reforms would result in “greater availability and flexibility, prioritise development of the service in more remote areas and create a core workforce of salaried workers to improve recruitment and retention of staff”.

Unconvinced, Mrs MacDonald claimed new recruits had not had basic, mandatory training but were working with clients.

She sought an assurance from the administration that clients would not be put at risk and that staff would not be “compromised” by working with untrained colleagues.

In supplementary questions she asked if the administration accepted that deficiencies needed to be addressed, if it would promise shift patterns and guaranteed hours for all its home carers and if there was sufficient funding. Mr Park promised a full answer at a later stage.

Speaking after the meeting, Mrs MacDonald said: “I’ve tried – in committee – to get an answer on this and I’ve been stone-walled. I would defer any decision on the in-house tender until we can have a proper look at this. It’s important the public know that some councillors are concerned about the service they receive.”

Housing and social work chairwoman Margaret Davidson denied that service reforms amounted to “privatisation”.

She said: “Next year we’ll be spending around £12million on home care. Around £3m, maybe more of that, will be spent with the private sector. The rest will be spent on our in-house teams. We’re just modernising our care-at-home teams.”

She added: “We’ve got great staff. They’ve got lots of training under their belts, many of them. There are some new ones coming along.

“They’re now being paid more than 20% more than they were last year.

“They’ve had a good increase in pay and they’ve deserved it. I don’t call that privatising our service.”